The latest issue of Japanese magazine has thrown up something of a surprise announcement (or not so, considering the huge success of the Nintendo DS), that a brand new version of the RPG Disgaea is being developed exclusively for the handheld console.

The news follows comments made by Nao Zook of Nis America (Nippon Ichi’s American arm) who has previously stated that he was interested in bringing the franchise to the Nintendo DS by an RPGamer reader:

Any chance of Disgaea on the Nintendo DS?

Nao: Let me just say this… you can look forward to it!

Unfortunately there aren’t any details about the new title yet, other than that it will be named Disgaea DS: Prince, according to a translation by the folks over at AkaYuki.

The Disgae series, developed by Nippon Ichi Software, first began on the Sony PlayStation 2 in 2003 with Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. A sequel arrived on the console in 2006, while a port of the original was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2006. Despite being critically acclaimed, the Disgaea series has largely been ignored by the gaming masses, so hopefully a switch to the phenomenally successful Nintendo DS will help change this.

We’ll bring you more details on this cult, tactical RPG as soon as we get it.